The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-01-13

| caves anu QUllOW tlCSS ouo NSoS,sS~-
houses, and stayed there for twelve days.
Nations have superstitions just like
individuals have them. The Persians
had their genii and fairies the Hindoos
their rakshar; the Greeks and Romans
had all sorts of wonderful gods and god
esses, such as Jupiter, aud Juno. and
Hercules, and Vulcan, and Neptune, and
they built temples for them to dwell in.
The more learned and enlightened a
people are the more sublime are their
superstitions. The unciyilized Indians
are myste6ed and "see God in clouds,
and hear him in the wind" The native
Africans come down to crocodiles and
serpents and owls for their gods. Some
of the negro tribes take a higher grade
of animals and set their faith in brer fox
and brer rabbit, as uncle Remus has told
you. When I was boy we could tell
the difference in the negro character by
the storie, they told us in their cabins at
night; and good negroes always told US
funny cheerful stories about the tar baby,
and the bear and the bee.tree, and about
foxes and wolves; but the bad negroes
told us about witches and ghosts and
Jack o'-lanters, and raw head-and-
bloody bones. I used to listen to them
until I didu't dare to look around aud |
got no closer aud closer to the FIRE, aod
when my brother called me / had to be
carried to the houss in negro's arms.
But what about the evergreens, the holly
and laurel and ivy and mistletoe and the
Christmas tree. That is curious histo'
ry, too, and it all came from the poetry
and romance that belongs to our nature.
Evergreens have for ages been used as
symbols of immortality: The victors
returning from the wars were crowned
with them; chaplets of green leaves and
vines were made for the successful ones
at the alympic games. The poets of
Scripture tell US of green bay trees AID
the cedars of Lebanon. Churches and
temples have been decorated with them
for centuries. Evergreeus have always
had poetic prominence in the vegetable
kingdom. We all love them, for they
cheer us in midwinter when there are no
other signs of vegetation to gladden. our
longing eyes. The poet southey wrote a
beautiful poem to the holly tree, and
tells US of something that perhaps you
never noticed. The green leaves have
sharp prickly points only about FIVE feet
oove the ground and above that there
are no prickly points to annoy you.
These barbed leaves near the ground are
to protect the beautiful tree from the cat.
tle. Above the reach of the cattle the
leaves are pointless and have beautiful
red berries clustered among them.
nRut as thew grow whore nothing is to fear"
..Smooth and unnrmed the pointless leaves ap-
pear"
Charles Dickens wrote q pretty song
about the ivy that has been set to music ::
"a dainty plant is the Ivy green
Creeping where no life is seen."
But the strangest history is about the
mistletoe, that is neither bush nor
tree, but is called parasitic because it
feeds on another plant It is quite dain-
ty, too, and has its iavorite food. l
never saw any on post oak, nor white
oak, nor sycamore, or poplar. The
chestnut is lis favori,e in this region, but
it is common 10 the Spanish OAK and
hickory and blackgun, and persimmon.
Once I found it TN an apple tree. 1t is
supposed that the birds transplant it by
carrying the berries on their bills from
tree to tree, and in trying to wipe the
sticky substance off upon the bark the
seed get stuck to the tree and gernninate.
And this provokes me to tell you about
the Scandinavians who settled northern
Europe long time ago. They had a
mythology as romantic and wonderful as
the Greeks. They had an imaginary
god called Wooden, and he was all pow
erfu ard WAS good to good people and
terrible to had ones. He was believed
to be the great creator of the heavensand
the earth. Our Wednesday was named
for him, and our Thurrday was named
for his son, Thor, and our Friday was
named for his wife, Friga. He had
another son named Baldur, who was very
wise and very eloquent and very beauti-
full, and he was his mothers favorite
child. One night Baldur had bad
dream. reckon he bad eaten fried ham
for supper. He dreamed he was going to
die, and he felt 80 troubled about it that
he told his mother, and she was greatly
distressed and almost distracted. She
was 30 much alarmed that she called all
creation together, all the gods and god.
esses, and spirits, and all the seas and
oceans, and rivers and mountains, and
hills and rocks, and trees and bushes,
and all plants that grew on the ground
and made them all take solemn oath
that they would not hurt Baldur or
allow any bsd spirit to use them to Bal
dur's hurt. But, alas, she forgot to swear
the mistletoe. It was neither tree nor
bush, nor was it plant that grew on
the ground, and so she overlooked it.
Now, there was very powerful old
hag, whose name was Loki, and she was
the goddess of malice. She hated every
thing and everybody. She lived on
hate; she had hate for breakfast and
hate for dinner and supper. I know
some people who I think must have de.
scended from her, or have few drops OF
her blood in their veins. When Loki
saw that the mistletoe was not sworn she
licked her tongue out with satisfaction,
and then hunted up blind idiot who